Product Information

Release Date:

May 1, 1995

Date Published:

May 1, 1995

details

A painter of the birds of his remote village on the coast of Newfoundland, the narrator of this novel--a finalist for the 1994 National Book Award--recounts the passion and betrayal that led him to murder a lighthouse keeper. Reprint. Tour.

Fabian Vas has always lived in Witless Bay, Newfoundland. He draws birds, and he has killed the local lighthouse keeper, a man named Botho August. There are a number of reasons for the murder: Fabian's love for the alcoholic Margaret, which his parents are trying to stop by forcing Fabian into marriage with a cousin; and Fabian's mother's adulterous affair with Botho August while his father was away.